The Chinese specialty chemical business saw almost a third eroded from its market value after said it was mulling the possibility of cancelling its AIM listing.

Full-year profits more than halved to £0.73m in the 12 months ended December 31 (2016: £1.91m), despite revenues rising to £96m from £82.2m a year earlier.

HaiKe blamed a 'critically difficult market' for the dive in profitability, as well as a reduction in output due to plant shutdowns for upgrade purposes.

'In light of the poor performance, the company said it is exploring all of its future options, including the possibility of delisting from the junior market and continuing as a private company,' it told investors.

The shares fell 27.8 per cent to 20p.

Northern exposure: Galantas Gold – another gold explorer – which headed 50.7 per cent higher to 6.6p after an encouraging update from its project in Omagh, Northern Ireland

Balancing that out was the sharp rise for Galantas Gold – another gold explorer – which headed 50.7 per cent higher to 6.6p after an encouraging update from its project in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency has been monitoring operations at the site and yesterday it published a report stating that there was no evidence that the development activities were having a detrimental effect on the chemical quality of the groundwater around the site or of the Kerr Burn.

On top of that, Galantas also received some 'very positive' exploration results for some of its Republic of Ireland licences.

A couple of old drill cores were found in a barn at one of the sites which contained intersections of high-grade copper, silver, lead, antimony and zinc and the company said it was figuring out how best to take the licences forward and maximise their value.